Tag: Buddhist

Decided, as an exercise, to render the Buddhist monk statue from Motsu-ji in watercolour, pen and wash style. The statue was partially sheltered from the bright sunlight by trees that provided some dappling.

One sees stone-water basins (temizuya) like these at the entrance to every shrine in Japan. This is one I spotted at Chuson-ji temple in Hiraizumi. It is the first stage of the process in visitng a shrine, a ritual purification, using the long handled ladles to cleanse the hands and the mouth. This one is quite plain, many have their own pavilions.

As an exercise I drew it again with my Pigma Micron pens, which I started using only recently.

Spotted this while walking around Motsu-ji temple in Hiraizumi. He seemed quite happy. Don’t actually know who this is, although given that there’s a statue of him, clearly a Buddhist monk of some significance. The lotus flower he’s seated on represents “purity of the body, speech and mind as while rooted in the mud”, and enlightenment, among other things. Don’t know what the object resting in his hands is, although I’d like to know.